


All the Small Things

by doctorivory



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Identity Reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-22
Updated: 2016-04-22
Packaged: 2018-06-03 17:00:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6618841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doctorivory/pseuds/doctorivory
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There was no dramatic reveal or any big moment of realization for either of them.<br/>Figuring out each other’s identities was quiet and anti-climactic. It happened gradually, with little hints and secret smiles, in between patrols and sunny days in the park.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All the Small Things

**Author's Note:**

> I don't remember how I started writing this but it happened and there's a lot of poetic language but tbh I just open my pockets and Adrienette flush spills out I can't control it. Spent most of the time writing and editing this to the Amelie soundtrack which is GORGEOUS and y'all should go listen to it.

There was no dramatic reveal or any big moment of realization for either of them.

Figuring out each other’s identities was quiet and anti-climactic. It happened gradually, with little hints and secret smiles, in between patrols and sunny days in the park.

Adrien hadn’t been trying to figure out who Ladybug was beneath the mask. He respected her privacy and her wish to remain anonymous, no matter how much his curiosity burned whenever they had to go their separate ways.

That hadn’t stopped him from wondering, however. It was an almost idle daydream he kept close at all times, in every still moment. Imagining what his lady could be doing at any given time, whether she was every random passerby, so close but he would never know. Whether they might know each other outside of the mask.

Such thoughts were a low hum in his mind as he napped in the sun one day when half the class had gone to the park to have their lunch. A shadow crossed his vision, causing him to open his eyes to see someone above him, wrapped in a halo of light. Shiny black pigtails and red ribbons, Ladybug’s name was swelling between his lips before a giggle brought him back to reality.

Marinette told him that if he slept any longer he would sleep through class, red cheeks making her freckles pop as giggles continued to impede her speech. He was sure he must look quite a sight, confused and blurry with sleep, but he wasn’t concerned with that in that moment, because cute and bubbly Marinette looked so much like his lady then. Her blush grew as he continued to stare at her, not saying a word and she stuttered out an excuse before running back to where she had left Alya.

Adrien shook the thought off, there was no way _Marinette_ could be Ladybug. Sure, they _looked_ similar, but Marinette seemed to lack the fire and conviction that his lady exuded. Still… he thought as he got up and followed her back to where their friends were getting ready to leave, there was something about her.

And it continued like this, little instances and pockets of time where the lines between the two blurred and melded. When Marinette put Chloe in her place or when Ladybug would play with her fingers, a blush glowing brightly on her face, accentuating the same freckles he saw on Marinette. At some unseen and unremembered point, Ladybug and Marinette became one person in his mind as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Maybe it was.

 It took Marinette less time to figure him out but longer to accept. There was always that selfish part of her that didn’t _want_ to know, that wanted not only to remain anonymous but for Chat to be nothing more than his mask. Though she had cursed Alya at the time for putting the image in her mind, there was some part of her who couldn’t deny the similarities, but it is not like there weren’t plenty of blond boys in Paris.

It was not until ages later- long after Alya herself had given up the troubling theory- when there was a few too many teeth in his grin, his shoulders loose that she really could got what her best friend had been talking about.

Once Marinette finally began to feel comfortable around him, no longer overwhelmed by his smile, he relaxed as well. His absolutely terrible sense of humor surfaced and there were moments when they teased each other where she couldn’t help but feel like she was sitting atop a random building, body heavy with laughter and exhaustion from another 2am battle.

Other nights though, Chat wore a quiet sadness that was achingly familiar to the girl, one that she saw on Adrien when he thought his friends weren’t looking. There were things he confided in her, that matched with the pieces she knew of Adrien’s father, and more still that filled in the missing pieces that made up Adrien’s home life.  It became undeniable that the sad but silly cat was the boy she mooned over in class each day.

Just as there was no big moment of truth for either teens, they never really acknowledged aloud what they had found out, or that the other knew. Sometimes, Adrien would grin at her from across the table, the room, the street, and toss her a sly wink. Sometimes, when he turned around to talk to her, a smile would kiss her cheeks and her back would straighten. It was enough, those secret, hidden exchanges, to know in their hearts that they _knew_ each other.

So when the time finally came, and they revealed their identities to each other, it was a much more subdued affair than one would expect.

There was a quiet _I knew it_. A soft _I’m glad it’s you_. A shy _I love all of you_.

And it was better than they could have imagined.


End file.
